To the people already married I give this instruction -- no, not I but the Lord -- that a wife is not to leave her husband.

To the rest of the people I myself would say -- though the Lord Himself has said nothing about it -- if a Christian has a wife that is not a believer and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her;

and a woman who has a husband that is not a believer, but he consents to live with her, must not divorce her husband.

Only, everybody must continue to live in the station which the Lord assigned to him, in that in which God called him. These are my orders in all the churches.

Were you called while a slave? Stop letting that annoy you. Yet, if you can win your freedom, take advantage of such an opportunity.

Now this is my opinion in the light of the present distress: That it is a good thing for a man to remain as he is.

and those that mourn as though they did not mourn, and those who are glad as though they were not glad, and those who buy as though they did not own a thing,

It is for your welfare that I am saying this, not to put restraint on you, but to foster good order and to help you to an undivided devotion to the Lord.

Now if a father thinks that he is not doing the proper thing regarding his single daughter, if she is past the bloom of her youth, and she ought to do so, let him do what she desires; he commits no sin. Let the daughter and her suitor marry.

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she pleases, except that he must be a Christian.

But in my opinion she will be happier, if she remains as she is, and I think too that I have God's Spirit.

Now about the foods that have been sacrificed to idols: We know that every one of us has some knowledge of the matter. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

If a man supposes that he has already gotten some true knowledge, as yet he has not learned it as he ought to know it.

So, as to eating things that have been sacrificed to idols, we are sure that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but One.

But it is not in all of you that such knowledge is found. Some, because of their past habits with idols, even down to the present moment, still eat such food as was really sacrificed to an idol, and so their consciences, because they are overscrupulous, are contaminated.

But you must see to it that this right of yours does not become a stumbling block to overscrupulous people.

It cannot be that we have no right to our food and drink, can it?

It cannot be that we have no right to take a Christian wife about with us, can it, as well as the rest of the apostles and the Lord's brothers, and Cephas?

For in the law of Moses it is written, "You must not muzzle an ox that is treading out your grain." Is it that God is concerned about oxen only?

Do you not know that those who do the work about the temple get their living from the temple, and those who constantly attend on the altar share its offerings?

Just so the Lord has issued orders that those who preach the good news shall get their living out of it.

But I myself have never used any of these rights. And I am not writing this just to make it so in my case, for I had rather die than do that. No one shall rob me of this ground of boasting.

Then what is the pay that I am getting? To be able to preach the good news without expense to anybody, and so never to make full use of my rights in preaching the good news.

Do you not know that in a race the runners all run, but only one can get the prize? You must run in such a way that you can get the prize.

Any man who enters an athletic contest practices rigid self-control in training, only to win a wreath that withers, but we are in to win a wreath that never withers.

So that is the way I run, with no uncertainty as to winning. That is the way I box, not like one that punches the air.

But I keep on beating and bruising my body and making it my slave, so that I, after I have summoned others to the race, may not myself become unfit to run.

For I would not have you, brothers, to be ignorant of the fact that though our forefathers were all made safe by the cloud, and all went securely through the sea, and in the cloud and the sea

and all drank the same spiritual drink -- for they continued to drink the water from the spiritual Rock which accompanied them, and that Rock was the Christ --

No temptation has taken hold of you but what is common to human nature. And God is to be trusted not to let you be tempted beyond your strength, but when temptation comes, to make a way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

Then what do I mean? That the sacrifice to an idol is a reality, or that an idol itself is a reality? Of course not!

I mean that what the heathen sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be in fellowship with demons.

Or, are we trying to incite the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?

No one should always be looking after his own welfare, but also that of his neighbor.

As a rule eat anything that is sold in the meat market without raising any question about it for conscience' sake,

for the earth and everything that it contains belong to the Lord.

If I give thanks and thus partake of food, why am I to be blamed for that for which I give thanks?

just as I myself am in the habit of pleasing everybody in everything, not aiming at my own welfare but at that of as many people as possible, in order that they may be saved.

But I want you to realize the fact that Christ is the Head of every man, that the husband is the head of the wife, and that God is the Head of Christ.

Does not nature itself teach you that it is degrading for a man to wear long hair,

but that it is a woman's glory to do so? For her hair is given her for a covering.

But if anyone is inclined to be contentious about it, I for my part prescribe no other practice than this, and neither do the churches of God.

For, in the first place, when you meet as a congregation, I hear that there are cliques among you, and I partly believe it.

Yes, indeed, there must be parties among you, in order that people of approved fitness may come to the front among you.

It is not that you have no houses to eat and drink in, is it? Or, are you trying to show your contempt for the church of God and trying to humiliate those who have no houses? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? No, I cannot praise you for this.

For the account that I passed on to you I myself received from the Lord Himself, that the Lord Jesus on the night He was betrayed took a loaf of bread

But since we do bring down upon us this judgment, we are being disciplined by the Lord, so that finally we may not be condemned along with the world.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that your meetings may not bring on you judgment. I will settle in detail the matters that remain, when I come.

You know that when you were heathen you were in the habit of going off, wherever you might be led, after idols that could not speak.

So I want to inform you that no one speaking under the power of the Spirit of God can say, "Jesus is accursed!" and no one except one under the power of the Holy Spirit can really say, "Jesus is Lord!"

If the foot says, "Since I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," that does not make it any less a part of the body.

If the ear says, "Since I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," that does not make it any less a part of the body.

No, on the contrary, even those parts of the body that seem to be most delicate are indispensable,

so that there is no disharmony in the body, but all the parts have a common care for one another.

But you must earnestly continue to cultivate your higher spiritual gifts. And yet I will show you a way that is better by far:

If I should have the gift of prophecy, And know all secret truths, and knowledge in its every form, and have such perfect faith that I could move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing.

I would like for all of you to speak in ecstasy, but I would rather that you prophesy. The man who speaks with real prophetic insight renders greater service than the man who speaks in ecstasy, unless the latter explains it, so the congregation may receive an uplift.

Even inanimate things, like the flute or the harp, may give out sounds, but if there is no difference in the notes, how can the tune that is played on the flute or the harp be told?

So it is with you; unless in your ecstatic speaking you speak a message that is clearly intelligible, how can the message spoken by you be understood? You might just as well be talking to the air!

Thank God, I speak in ecstasy more than any of you.

But in the public congregation I would rather speak five words with my mind in action, in order to instruct the people too, than ten thousand words in ecstasy.

Hence, if the whole church has met and everybody speaks in ecstasy, and illiterate people or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are crazy?

For in this way you can all, one after another, speak your prophetic message, so that all may learn and be encouraged,

If anyone claims to have the prophetic spirit, or any other spiritual gift, let him recognize that what I now am writing is the Lord's command.

For I passed on to you, among the primary principles of the good news, what I had received, that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures,

that He was buried, that on the third day He was raised from the dead, in accordance with the Scriptures,

and that He was seen by Cephas, and then by the Twelve.

After that, at one time He was seen by more than five hundred brothers, most of whom are still living, though some of them have fallen asleep.

But by God's unmerited favor I have become what I am, and His unmerited favor shown to me was not bestowed for nothing, for I have toiled more extensively than any of them, and yet it was not I but God's unmerited favor working with me.

Now if we preach that Christ has been raised from the dead, how is it that some of you are saying that there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead?

and we are found guilty of lying about God, for we have testified that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if indeed the dead are never raised.

For since it was through a man that death resulted, it was also through a man that the resurrection of the dead resulted.

After that comes the end, when He will turn the kingdom over to God His Father, when He will put an end to all other government, authority, and power;

for He has put everything in subjection under His feet. But when He says that everything has been put in subjection to Him, He Himself is evidently excepted who put it all in subjection to Him.

And when everything has been put in subjection to Him, then the Son Himself will also become subject to Him who has put everything in subjection to Him, so that God may be everything to everybody.

You foolish man! the seed that you sow never comes to life unless it dies first;

and what you sow does not have the body that it is going to have, but is a naked grain, of wheat (it may be) or something else;

But it is not the spiritual that comes first; it is the physical, and then the spiritual.

For this decaying part of us must put on the body that can never decay, and this part once capable of dying must put on the body that can never die.

And when this part once capable of dying puts on the body that can never die, then what the Scripture says will come true, "Death has been swallowed up in victory.

So, my dear brothers, continue to be firm, incapable of being moved, always letting the cup run over in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the service of the Lord is never thrown away.

On the first day of every week each of you must put aside and store up something in proportion as he is prospered, so that no contributions need be made when I come back.

and I shall likely stay over with you some time, or maybe spend the winter with you, so that you may help me on to whatever points I may visit.

For I have an opportunity here that is great and calls for work, and it has many opponents.

If Timothy gets there, see that he is at ease among you, for he is devotedly doing the work of the Lord, just as I am.

So no one must slight him at all. But send him on with your goodbye, that he may come back to me, for I am expecting him with the other brothers.

Now I beg you, brothers -- you know that the family of Stephanas were the first converts in Greece, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of God's people --

And I am glad that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have come to see me, because they have supplied what you lacked.

The churches of Asia wish to be remembered to you. Aquila and Prisca, with the church that meets at their house, send you their cordial Christian greetings.

Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, with all God's people all over Greece:

who comforts me in every sorrow I have, so that I can comfort people who are in sorrow with the comfort with which I am comforted by God.

If I am in sorrow, it is on behalf of your comfort and salvation; if I am comforted, it is for the comfort that is experienced by you in your patient endurance of the same sort of sufferings that I am enduring too.

My hope for you is well founded; because I know that just as you, brothers, are sharers of my sufferings, so you will be sharers of my comfort too.

For I do not want you to be uninformed about the sorrow that I suffered in Asia, because I was so crushed beyond any power to endure that I was in dire despair of life itself.

He saved me from a death so horrible, and He will save me again! He it is on whom I have set my hope that He will still save me,

because you are helping me by your prayers for me, so that thanks to God will be given by many on my behalf for God's gracious gift to me in answer to the prayers of many.

For my boast is this, to which my conscience testifies, that before the world, but especially before you, I have acted from pure motives and in sincerity before God, not depending on worldly wisdom but on God's unmerited favor.

For what I am writing you is nothing more than what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand it perfectly, just as some of you have come to understand me partially;

that is, to understand that you have grounds for boasting of me just as I have for boasting of you, on the day of our Lord Jesus.

It was because of this confidence that first I planned to visit you, to give you a double delight;